O2 gains KPMG mandate to meet new demand for remote working

O2 has won a contract with professional services company KPMG UK to provide its employees with new business services, including remote working tools that have helped the firm operate during lockdown.

To aid flexible working during Covid-19, O2 has already rolled out remote working tools across all of KPMG’s UK business operations. “O2 is working with businesses across the country to help them embrace digital connectivity as part of our ongoing efforts to rebuild Britain and kick-start the economy following Covid-19,” said Jo Bertram, business managing director at O2.

“We are excited to be working with KPMG to level up their remote working capabilities in these challenging times.”

Timothy Jones, chief operating officer at KPMG UK, added: “We are continually transforming our business to support the changing needs of our clients and employees, and mobile technology is an important enabler of creating a connected enterprise. Following a competitive tender process, we are pleased to have appointed O2 as the mobile network provider for our UK business.”

As the UK looks towards a flexible and digitised future working style, new research from O2, The flexible future of work, has found that many businesses have been surprised by how effectively their employees can work remotely, with 74% of companies planning to shift to more remote working permanently after the pandemic.

Among workers who have the option to work remotely, 45% said the pandemic will have a long-term impact on their organisation’s view of flexible working, and 55% thought things would stay the same after the pandemic. Of those who predicted change, 55% travelled for work at least once a week, possibly because their work was most disrupted by the pandemic.

The study also showed that the now seemingly inevitable transition towards a more flexible way of working will have an impact that reaches way beyond the office, changing where people live, how they communicate and the opportunities available to firms and people in general.

In addition to 45% wanting flexible working for a better work-life balance, 38% wanted more flexibility so they have the freedom to work at a time that suits them. Among those who already have some level of flexibility, home was the preferred place to be, with half typically working from home at least one day a week.

To meet these demands, which have grown since the lockdown began in March, organisations are migrating to cloud applications, and the study predicted that by 2022, 55-60% of organisations will use an external service provider’s cloud-managed service, up from 30% in 2018. Meanwhile, connections are set to keep getting faster, with better Wi-Fi in UK homes and mobile connectivity across more of the UK.

Yet even though the study also discovered that if innovations in technology meant working from home was easier and more common, 63% of people would be willing to live up to an hour away from the workplace, 59% said they faced challenges with their organisation’s collaboration tools.